螯合療法 Chelation Therapy

Today's newspaper have an article on the death of a patient related to the professional misconduct of a doctor. The headlines are

Appledaily:
雙氧水靜脈注射 延誤送院病人不治

The Sun
療程不當 兩阻送院 病人死亡

The report mentioned 螯合療法 (Chelation Therapy) and injection of 雙氧水 (Hydrogen Peroxide).

From the information I collected from the web, I've found that Chelation Therapy and Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy are two different things. Chelation Therapy inject a chemical called EDTA into the blood stream to remove metals from your blood. Supporters claim that it can cure heart disease that are caused by hardening of the arteries and also other diseases due to "metal poisoning". Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy uses Hydrogen Peroxide and supporters say it can cure everything from cancer to AIDS.

However, none of these treatment are proven scientifically. My common sense tells me when someone promises a "miracle cure", we have to be extremely careful.

Let's see what the American Heart Association say about Chelation Theray:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3000843
see the section on
Can chelation therapy be dangerous?

AHA also said
We found no scientific evidence to demonstrate any benefit from this form of therapy.
see
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4493

However, because Chelation Therapy is becoming common in the US, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that they have launched a study to see if there is any real benefit of this therapy.